The delegates with representatives of the World Bank (from the left): Hassan Hadad, Dr. Mohammedali Taha, Prof. Dr. Dlawer Ala'Aldeen, Björn Gillsäter (World Bank), Dr. Hanan Alfatlawi, Nils Wörmer (KAS Syria/Iraq), Dr. Claire Kfouri (World Bank), Ali Al-Mawlawi, Dr. Stefan Friedrich (KAS New York).

Dr. Hanan Saeed Mohsin Alfatlawi, oppostiton leader in the Parliament of Iraq.

Dr. Mohammedali Yaseen Taha, is a Member of Parliament in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Prof. Dr. Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, is the Founding President of the Middle East Research Institute, former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Kurdistan Regional Government.

Ali Al-Mawlawi, head of research at Al-Bayan Center.

Hassan Hadad - external advisor of the World Bank in the office of the Iraqi Prime minister Haider al-Abadi.

The first discussion was with Grainne O'Hara, Deputy Director at UNHCR New York.

Afterwards there was a discussion at the development program UNDP, where the delegates were received by Dr. Adel Abdellatif...

... and Moises Venancio, Regional Adviser Iraq (and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria).

At Lunch with Darko Mocibob, Director a.i. of the Middle East and West Asia Division, UN Department of Political Affairs.

Group picture in the Delegates Dining Room in the main building of the UN.

The group also had the opportunity to attend a session of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly. It discusses disarmament issues and is currently chaired by the Permanent Representative of Iraq.

In the afternoon there was a meeting with the World Bank, including a telephone conference with the bank's representative in Baghdad.

Dr. Claire Kfouri, program coordinator for Iraq, and Björn Gillsäter, representative of the World Bank at the UN, answered the delegation's questions and also used the opportunity to exchange views with the experts from Iraq.

Dr. Stefan Friedrich, director of KAS New York, welcomes Iraq experts from various UN organizations, permanent missions and NGOs to the off-the-record discussion at the KAS New York office.

Nils Wörmer, head of the KAS office Syria / Iraq, moderated the exciting discussion.

The next morning, the delegation met with Dr. David Sharia, Head of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED).

A guided tour in the main building of the United Nations was also part of the program (picture: hall of the General Assembly).

Dr. Mohammedali Taha at the UN tour.

After the tour in the UN headquarters, Iraq experts from academia and NGOs gathered in the KAS office for a political colloquium.

Prof. Dr. Zainab Bahrani, Edith Porada Professor of Art History and Archeology at Columbia University.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Head of Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch.

Prof. Dr. David L. Phillips, director of the Peacebuilding and Law Program at Columbia University's Institute for Human Rights Studies.

The last meeting on Tuesday took place again at the UNDP - this time with Mr. Mounir Tabet, Head of the UNDP Office in Iraq...

... and Benjamin Kumpf, innovation expert at UNDP.

The last discussion was with Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Coordinator of the ISIL (Da'esh), Al Qaeda and Taliban Monitoring Committee of the UN Security Council, and Frederique Gautier, Iraq Expert on the same committee.

From October 22nd to 25th, the KAS office in New York, with the support of the KAS office Syria/Iraq, organized a dialogue program for a high-ranking five-member delegation from Iraq with representatives of the United Nations (UN) and Middle East experts. The delegation consisted of Dr. Hanan Saeed Mohsin Alfatlawi, opposition leader in the Iraqi Parliament, Dr. Mohammedali Yaseen Taha, member of the Kurdish Regional Parliament, Prof. Dr. Dlawer Ala'Aldeen, founder and director of the Middle East Research Institute and former minister of education in the Kurdistan Regional Government, Ali Al-Mawlawi, head of research at the Al-Bayan Center in Baghdad and Hassan Hadad, external adviser of the World Bank at the Iraqi prime minister's office. The delegation was accompanied by Nils Wörmer, head of the KAS Syria/Iraq office.

The visit of the Iraqi delegation to New York can be described as a “KAS premiere”. For the first time, Iraqi representatives visited the United States on invitation of KAS. Over the past few years, KAS headquarters in Berlin have repeatedly welcomed delegations from Iraq and the Kurdistan region of Iraq for high-level talks with representatives of the German Federal Government and Members of Parliament. Given the current tensions between the Iraqi central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government in Erbil it seemed particularly important that the delegation coming to New York was joined by representatives from both cities.

The objective of the visit to New York was to discuss the role of the United Nations in Iraq with UN representatives and to analyze how the organization can best contribute to solving some of Iraq’s fundamental problems. For this reason the delegation met with representatives of UNHCR and UNDP; furthermore with the Director of the Middle East and West Asia Division of the Department of Political Affairs, with World Bank officials working closely with the Iraqi government, with the Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate and the UN Security Council’s ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee.

Central issues that surfaced repeatedly during the talks were:

-The need for stabilization of the structurally weak country: a clear distinction has been made between humanitarian aid, as provided by UNHCR or UNICEF in Iraq by running refugee camps and caring for traumatized women and children, and longer-term stabilization efforts, such as the economic development efforts supported by the World Bank. Many of the dialogue partners agreed that this mammoth task calls for joint efforts by the Iraqi state and society, international donors (such as the UN, World Bank and EU) and bilateral donors (for example, Germany, France, the UK).

-National reconciliation: after all that has happened in Iraq over the last 15 years, the rifts among the country's ethnic and religious groups are now deeper than ever before. At the same time, the fragmentation among those groups is stronger than one might assume from outside: For example the Shiite group that dominates the Iraqi government is deeply divided among itself; the case is similar with the leaders in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The undeniable influence of regional powers, above all Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, makes the already very complex domestic political situation even more complicated. After the traumatizing rule of the Islamic State (IS) in parts of the country the challenges now arise in prosecuting the IS fighters (especially doing it in a way that contributes to national reconciliation), re-integrating them into society and preventing future radicalization.

-The political system of Iraq suffers from the widespread corruption. This is one reason why the Iraqis hardly trust their politicians: According to a study by the Bayan Center, only 11% of the people in Iraq would again vote for their current representatives.

A key concern in the discussions with the UN representatives was that the international community should help tackling the root causes of the problems in Iraq. In addition, the delegates underlined the contribution that the UN could make to policy development and institution building. Some even called for "conditioned help": Certain funds should be tied to reforms in the area of the rule of law and good governance. All in all, the delegates asked for a more determined and assertive role of the UN in Iraq.

In an off-the-record discussion at KAS New York Iraq experts from various UN organizations, permanent missions and NGOs had the opportunity to engage directly with the delegation members. Another exciting highlight of the three-day program was a political colloquium with representatives from Columbia University and Human Rights Watch. The experts made policy recommendations in their respective areas - preservation of cultural heritage, the situation of human rights and the political situation in Iraq - to which the delegates responded directly.

The program also allowed the delegates to learn about innovative approaches within the UN system: During a visit to the UNDP Innovation Team they learned about alternative ways of funding, such as crowd funding, and data innovation, which means the use of large amounts of data to predict social and economic problems. This new approach is already put into practice by the UN program Global Pulse. In Iraq UNDP has started the #inno4dev in Iraq initiative which aims at using innovative tech approaches for better development results. Public-private partnerships on counter-terrorism with major Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook and YouTube have also been discussed during the program.

During the talks the delegates took the opportunity to discuss key questions with the UN representatives and make follow-up appointments for meeting in Baghdad and Erbil, where it is, according to them, much more difficult to get through to UN staff.

In the final evaluation the group members underlined that - in addition to all the gained knowledge and contacts – it was particularly beneficial for them to deepen the personal ties with their fellow delegates, especially with the ones from the respective “hostile region”.

Translated by:

Victoria Liedl